Edmonton extortion scheme linked to notorious B.C. gang, court records show

An extortion scheme that targeted South Asian homebuilders in Edmonton is linked to the B.C.-based gang Brothers Keepers, court records obtained by CBC News show.

One of the men charged in the Project Gaslight investigation pleaded guilty last month. The agreed facts of the case offer the first detailed look at the apparent network behind threats and arsons that terrified business owners for months.

They also reveal that Harpreet Uppal — the man killed alongside his 11-year-old son in a 2023 shooting — was part of the extortion plot.

The agreed statement of facts says Uppal was a member of Brothers Keepers, which B.C. RCMP have described as a "prominent and violent gang." He was also a "close associate" of Maninder Dhaliwal, the man accused of orchestrating extortions and arsons from abroad. 

The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) arrested several alleged members of the group running the extortion scheme in July 2024.

Among them was 19-year-old Divnoor Singh Asht, who pleaded guilty on May 23 to three of the seven charges he faced: arson, extortion and conspiring to commit extortion.

Asht admitted he was one of the people responsible for "assembling and instructing the lower members of the group to carry out the extortion and related arsons. These actions were based on the direction and instruction of Maninder Dhaliwal and Harpreet Uppal, prior to his death."

Asht was sentenced to 4½ years in prison. With credit for pre-sentence custody, he has a little more than three years left to serve.

The agreed facts say some in the group were members of Brothers Keepers, but there's no evidence that Asht was one of them.

The others who were arrested — Gurkaran Singh, Manav Heer, Parminder Singh and a 17-year-old boy who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act — are still before the courts. The charges against them haven't been proven.

A 19-year-old woman was also arrested in the Project Gaslight investigation, but court records show the charges against her were stayed in March.

Dhaliwal was arrested in the United Arab Emirates late last year on separate charges. He has yet to be prosecuted.

An extradition request remains in effect to send him back to Canada. Court documents cite Canada Border Services Agency records that indicate Dhaliwal left the country for India in July 2023, but he's believed to have largely directed the extortions from Dubai, in the Emirates.

Uppal, 41, was killed at a south Edmonton gas station on the afternoon of Nov. 10, 2023. At the time, EPS investigators said he was known as someone "high up" in the world of gangs and drugs.